Most of us find ourselves to be creatures of habit. We want to have our chair set at a certain height or we can't easily type. We prefer certain colors on our monitors, and we want our software to be configured in a certain way. For those of us that work with software, we typically desire a particular set of applications installed on all our systems, or we struggle to be productive.

Whether you have a laptop or desktop, or even tablet, there are probably certain things you expect to be set up in your environment. These could be hardware or software items that you find necessary to do your job. This week I wanted to ask you what those items are.

What do you consider to be valuable for your desktop environment?

It could be hardware or software. Are there tools that you find useful for development? For administration? For ergonomic comfort or efficiency? Perhaps even more importantly, do you have a procedure to easily rebuild your next machine, or this one if it has issues?

I don't have a procedure, but I do tend to work in VMs for SQL and development work. This gives me an easy backup, and if something breaks, I restore a snapshot in the VM. More importantly, I still have a machine that is working if some piece of software causes issues in my environment. Aside from SSMS and VS, I do find that I want the Red Gate toolbelt, an image capture tool (I can't decide which one), Edit Plus, Live Writer, Github, and Evernote in my working environment.

In terms of hardware, I'm fairly flexible, though I do like my standing desk for most work. I find I prefer it to sitting at a desk or table. Of course, the one constant no matter where I work is I need a good supply of water and coffee.